Our Firm
A different kind of law firm.
We built Spengler & Agans to work the way we'd want a law firm to work if we were the client: personalized, transparent about cost, and genuinely invested in the outcome - not a commodity service billed by the hour with no relationship behind it.
How we started
Eric Spengler and Justin Agans met on the first day of orientation at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. The friendship that started that morning became a business partnership, and it has now lasted more than a decade.
They founded Spengler & Agans in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2013, out of a small office in the Dilworth neighborhood. The idea was to run a law practice the way a startup runs it: lean, flexible, and quick to act. From the first day that meant one promise above all others, which was high quality legal work at a rate a growing business can actually plan around.
In 2018 the firm bought its own building, a historic Charlotte house that had recently been converted for commercial use, on North Caswell Rd. That is still where the firm works. It is a smaller, warmer place than a downtown tower, and it matches how the firm runs.
The idea was to run a law practice the way a startup runs it: lean, flexible, and quick to act. Eric Spengler and Justin Agans, founding the firm in 2013
Expanding to Greater Philadelphia
In 2023 the firm added a third partner from the founders' own law school. Nathan Wenk earned his J.D. at Indiana University Maurer School of Law in the same class as Eric and Justin. He joined the business practice and opened the firm's office in Media, PA, in the Greater Philadelphia area.
Nathan brought a multi-state Fractional General Counsel practice with him. That gave small and mid-sized companies well beyond North Carolina the same outside counsel relationship Charlotte businesses had been relying on for a decade.
What "a different kind of law firm" actually means
We do not think legal work should be sold like a product off a shelf, and we do not think one answer fits every client. Every solution here is built for the client in front of us. In practice, that comes down to four commitments the firm holds itself to.
- Individualized attention. If we cannot give a matter real, personal attention, we turn it down. We would rather say no than put a name on a file and leave it there.
- Fair billing, and no surprises. We agree with the client up front on how much to spend on a matter, based on what they care about and what they can afford. Then we work to that number.
- A lean operating model. Running the firm the way a startup runs keeps our rates competitive. It does not cost the client anything in the quality of the work.
- Both sides of the table. We handle transactions and we handle litigation. The same firm that writes your agreements is the firm that can defend them in court.
We are also always looking for the most efficient route to the result a client needs, as long as it is fully compliant and it actually works.
In the community
The firm has sponsored PitchBreakfast, Charlotte's monthly startup pitch event, for over a decade. Eric Spengler serves as Secretary of the Villa Heights Community Organization and founded the Friends of Queens Park nonprofit; he is a past President of the Mecklenburg County Bar's Civil Litigation Section and a former Mecklenburg Soil & Water Conservation District Supervisor. Justin Agans is a regular guest lecturer on entrepreneurship and a mentor to early-stage founders.
In Greater Philadelphia, Nathan Wenk serves on the Board of Trustees of the Media-Upper Providence Township Library, maintains ties to the Chester County Economic Development Council and the region's startup ecosystem, and takes on pro bono matters in eviction defense, clemency advocacy, and naturalization cases.
